Fairytales from the Underworld
by Frost Deejn
Summary: The digidestined go to the Underworld in search of two powerful demons that could help them defeat Daemon once and for all. Yolei finally realizes Ken has feelings for her.
1. Blue Clouds

Fairytales in the Underworld

Disclaimer: I don't own _Digimon_. I also don't own the poem "Ulalume," by Edgar Poe. The chapter titles come from the poem "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by the Chinese poet Po Chu-i.

Note: takes place a few weeks after _Gloom._

Chapter 1: Blue Clouds

_The skies they were ashen and sober;  
The leaves they were crisped and sere--  
The leaves they were withering and sere;  
It was night in the lonesome October  
Of my most immemorial year;  
It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,  
In the misty mid region of Weir--  
It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,  
In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir._

The rock on which Ken's footsteps fell was grey, with dark green grass growing in the crevices. Dark grey clouds covered the sky.

Years ago, in an effort to ease his nightmares, Ken had learned some techniques of lucid dreaming, but he had never tried this before. He used to see his _anima—_the female aspect of his subconscious—in his dreams as a coping mechanism to the psychological trauma and guilt he had after his reign as the Digimon Emperor, but those dreams stopped long ago. Tonight he was trying to bring her back.

"Psyche," he called softly.

A dark shape appeared, like a shadow of a woman whose dress flickered in the wind. "It's been a long time. Why do you call me?"

"I'm afraid..."

"Of what?"

"There's someone," he said slowly. "I love her. I'm in love with her. I'm afraid..."

"To tell her?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I'm not sure. I know it's cliché, but I'm afraid of hurting our friendship. I've felt this way about her for years. I need to tell her. I can't stand not telling her, but..." he waved his hand around at the barren landscape. "My soul looks like this. Hers is bright, sunny, full of life."

Psyche whispered, "When you see her do you think 'Thou wast all that to me, Love'?"

Ken nodded. "Today was the anniversary of Sam's death."

"You lost Sam, you lost Wormmon, and you're afraid of losing _her._"

"Yes. But it's too late. She is too much to me. I think I would hurt more if I lose her without her knowing. I almost lost her not long ago, and I felt like I was dying inside."

"Does she make you smile?"

Ken looked down at his hands. He was holding an amethyst geode. "You knew I would love her?" he asked.

"From the moment you first saw her. At the time you were too preoccupied to realize it."

"Then how can I tell her?"

"Don't worry; that is going to be taken care of. What you need to worry about now is keeping her and yourself alive."

"What do you mean?"

Psyche faded away without answering.

Ken awoke in the dark of early morning feeling vaguely uneasy, and thinking of Yolei and Sam.


	2. Besought

Disclaimer: Imagine some witty disclaimer here.

Chapter 2: Besought

The digidestined gathered at Izzy's apartment for a meeting.

"What's up?" Davis asked.

"You said you had something we should see," said T.K.

"Opalmon sent a communication to Tora, and he forwarded it to me." Izzy sat at his computer. He played the message.

The shimmering image of Tora's partner Opalmon appeared on the screen. "Hello, Digidestined," she began. "I may have a lead...a weapon we could use against Daemon. But it's...um...complicated. I don't want to say too much right now. Meet me at the gate between the digitalworld and the underworld tonight. I've been told Ken knows the place. Prepare to be gone for a few days. Don't bring your digimon. I'll explain when you arrive. And Ken, a mutual friend told me to tell you hi for her." With that the transmission ended.

Though confused, they called their schools, employers, and families to make arrangements to be gone on digiworld-related business. Cody and T.K. couldn't make it, and neither could the older digidestined except for Izzy. Izzy's girlfriend Tsukiyo insisted on coming with him. He didn't exactly agree, but Tsukiyo had a way of doing what she wanted without anyone's permission.

They met Opalmon as arranged. Tora was already there. So were two creatures most of the digidestined had never met before. They had the shape of human women, but were vastly different in color: one was fiery, with a red dress, golden skin, and orange hair that was blue at the roots; the other was pale blue, like snow and ice, with a white dress and glacier-blue hair. They were alike in their stark-white eyes and identical turquoise jewels on their belts.

"Pyromon, Cryomon, what are you doing here?" Ken asked.

"You know these digimon?" Izzy asked.

"They're friends of mine...from the underworld."

"Why are they here?" Davis wondered aloud in Opalmon's general direction.

"They say they can help us against Daemon."

"Is this the weapon you mentioned?" Yolei asked.

Cryomon stepped forward. "Let us explain..."

"Daemon has many allies in the underworld," Pyromon interrupted. "We're afraid he may be planning to take over, and we want to stop him."

"Obviously," Cryomon cut in. "And the longer we wait, the more powerful he becomes."

"How can you help? The last time we fought Daemon, all of our DNA-digivolved digimon together couldn't destroy him. I thought you underworld digimon couldn't even digivolve," Yolei stated.

Cryomon looked at her sharply. "Individually, we're not as powerful as digimon, but when we combine our attacks, we can be quite powerful."

"Fortunately, underworlders aren't likely to cooperate," Opalmon muttered.

"When Cryomon and I were born," Pyromon interjected, "we were two in a set of four sisters."

"A very rare occurrence," Cryomon added. "The only time it has happened in living memory."

"When the four of us combine our powers, we are very, very powerful," said Pyromon.

Cryomon again spoke. "Some of the leaders of the underworld decided we were too much a threat together, so they separated us."

"They didn't worry so much about Cryomon and me, since we can barely stand to be in the same house..."

"But our other sisters, Phytomon and Xylomon, were taken to a part of the underworld where we are forbidden to go. We haven't seen them in years, but now I believe it is time to reunite to fight Daemon."

"So you want us to find them," Izzy surmised.

Cryomon and Pyromon nodded in unison.

"I've negotiated passage through part of the underworld controlled by Balaammon," Opalmon told them. "He's allowing us safe passage on the condition that I'm the only digimon that accompanies you. I'm sorry."

The digidestined glanced at each other.

"We have to try," Davis said. "We need all the help against Daemon we can get."

"I agree. Daemon is after us; we need to do everything we can to stop him."

"It will be very dangerous," Ken said. "I could go alone; I've been to the underworld twice before; I know what to expect."

"I'm going with you," Yolei insisted. "I've been to the underworld, too. And you're not going alone."

"You're still recovering from Xtoyilmon's bite," Ken argued.

"I'm fine," she repeated for what felt like the hundredth time.

"I'm not letting you go."

"You can't stop me," she challenged.

Izzy and Tsukiyo were having a similar argument, with Tsukiyo insisting that it didn't matter that she wasn't a digidestined; someone had to look out for him.

Minutes later, they were all in the underworld. Cryomon and Pyromon led the way.


	3. The DaggerTower Trail

Disclaimer: Not mine. The poem is "Ulalume" by Edgar Poe. The chapter titles come from the "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by Po Chu-i.

Chapter 3: The Dagger-Tower Trail

_Here once, through an alley Titanic  
Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul--  
Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.  
These were days when my heart was volcanic  
As the scoriac rivers that roll--  
As the lavas that restlessly roll  
Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek  
In the ultimate climes of the pole,  
that groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek  
In the realms of the boreal pole._

To the surprise of no one, the underworld was not a pleasant place. The path they traveled was lined with gnarled, leafless trees. Even with the sun high in the cloudless sky, the land seemed dim, dusty, dismal.

"We're almost there," Pyromon said.

They arrived at a tall, thorny hedge that stretched as far as they could see in both directions. The path ended at a large mirror with the image of an owl carved around it, the wings serving as a frame.

"We're not allowed to go further than this," Cryomon stated. "If we go with you, you'll be stopped, possibly killed long before we find them."

"And you'll no longer be under Balaammon's influence; the region you're entering is controlled by Gruesomon. Be very careful," Pyromon warned.

Cryomon and Pyromon stayed behind as the rest approached the mirror, looking for a way to pass through.

"Open sesame?" Davis tried.

Yolei chuckled. "How about 'Mirror, mirror, on the wall...'"

Suddenly, the eyes of the owl carving opened. "The keys to opening the Gate of Wonder and Fear are the powers of Light and Dark."

"What is this, a riddle?" Tora asked. "Where are we supposed to find the power of light and dark?"

Yolei answered. "Kari is the Digidestined of Light. She has the crest of Light, so that must be her."

"But what about the power of Dark?" Izzy wondered.

"Isn't it obvious?" Ken asked. He stepped forward and held his black digivice toward the mirror. "Kari, try yours."

She pulled out her own digivice and held it up to the mirror. "Mirror...open."

Nothing happened.

"The power is in us," Ken assured her. "We just have to channel it through our digivices."

"I'm not sure how."

Ken frowned as he remembered the last time he tapped his power: opening the portal to the Dark Ocean to trap Daemon. He hadn't enjoyed the experience. It reminded him of occasions when he used his power, almost without even being aware of it and with no sense of the significance of what he did, when he was the Emperor. "Just think about what you want to do, and it will happen."

Energy burst from their digivices, uniting as it was absorbed by the mirror, which glowed for a moment, then disappeared.

"Yes! We did it!" Davis exclaimed.

The smiles disappeared when Kari and Ken lost consciousness and fell to the ground.

* * *

_Our talk had been serious and sober,  
But our thoughts they were palsied and sere--  
Our memories were treacherous and sere,  
For we knew not the month was October,  
And we marked not the night of the year  
(Ah, night of all nights in the year!)--  
We noted not the dim lake of Aubur  
(Though once we had journeyed down here)--  
Remembered not the dank tarn of Auber,  
Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.  
_

"Where are we?" Kari asked when the disorientation passed. They were in a dark place. There were no sounds, no scents, no perceivable sensations of heat or cold.

"I'm not sure," Ken answered.

Indistinct forms emerged from the dark, only to evaporate as they came within sight.

"Gatomon!" Kari gasped as one of the forms approached. As the apparition vanished without a sound, she realized it had been an image of Gatomon the first time they met. "Ken, I think this place is showing us our memories."

He nodded as he watched an image of his brother coalesce. Kari could sense the feelings of sadness, loss, and guilt that radiated from the image.

Some of the memories were blurry, others were dark and obscure, as though they were being deliberately hidden.

A picture of Yolei in the digitalworld appeared. Kari had never seen her so radiant and happy. She realized this was the way Ken saw her.

Something else began to move. It chilled Kari to her heart. It wasn't quite a memory...or maybe it was, but it was hidden in the darkness, circling like a predator stalking its prey. She backed away.

"What is it?" Ken asked.

Kari turned toward him and realized with a fresh gush of horror that he couldn't sense it; it was something from her own past, not his. "I don't know. We have to get out of here."

"I don't know how."

Distant voices echoed through the darkness. Their friends were calling them.

* * *

"Come on, guys!" Yolei yelled. "Kari, Ken, wake up!" 

The others had carried their comatose companions through the mirror before the opening disappeared. To their surprise, they'd found a bright, verdant garden on the other side. The mirror had an owl sculpture facing inward as well as outward.

"The energy humans use in the digital world is an extension of themselves," Tsukiyo said quietly. "If that's the energy they used to open the mirror..."

Yolei spun around angrily. "Do not even suggest that they won't wake up!" she shrieked. "They have to!" She looked up at the silver owl sculpture. "What did you do to them? Bring them back!"

"They have been displaced from their own minds. They must find their own way back."

Yolei shook her head violently, then returned to Kari's side. "Wake up. Please. Kari, you're my best friend." She shook her by the shoulders.

Kari slowly blinked. She sat up. In spite of the garden's warmth, she felt cold. She felt like whatever had been stalking her in the dark place was still lurking around behind her. "I'm okay," she said unconvincingly.

Davis and Tsukiyo were trying to rouse Ken, but without any luck. After helping Kari to her feet, Yolei joined them. "Ken..." He was so still, she worried that he was dead. His open eyes saw nothing. She placed her hand on his cheek.

His eyes focused on her, and his hand lifted and touched hers.

Her face broke into a smile. "Ken!"

He sat up and looked over to Kari. "You okay?"

She nodded. "We're back. But I feel so strange. I feel like there are things crawling under my skin."

"I should have warned you about the effects," he said.

"You mean you've done that before?"

Ken didn't answer. Instead he stood up and looked around at their surroundings. Beyond the garden was a forest. In the distance the spires of an ancient castle rose above the trees, framed by even more distant snowcapped mountains.

"I had no idea a place like this existed in the underworld," Ken mentioned.

"It's beautiful," Kari added.

"Are we ready to go? Those two digimon, or whatever they are, are out there somewhere," Davis reminded them.

Ken and Kari nodded, and together the group set off. In the middle of the garden was an ornate fountain, beyond which the path split into four, each leading into the forest in the general direction of the castle.

"I don't think it's a good idea to split up," Davis said, but he only said it because they all knew that was what they had to do.

"Four paths, eight of us..." Izzy pointed out.

"I'm going with Opalmon," Tora announced.

"Well, obviously," Tsukiyo mumbled. "Izzy and I will take the leftmost path."

"I guess Opalmon and I will take the one furthest to the right."

"I'll go with Yolei," Kari quickly volunteered.

Davis glanced at her, suspecting she was trying to avoid being paired with him. His crush on her had worn off long ago and he wished she would realize it. "Great! Ken and I will go this way." He started down the center-left trail.

"I don't like the looks of this," said Ken. "I think we should head back here if we don't find anything by tomorrow morning."

"Good idea," Kari agreed.

Tsukiyo turned to Opalmon. "Take care of my brother."

"You don't even have to ask."

"Since when did you give a care about me?" Tora asked.

"You may be worthless, but you're the only brother I've got," she replied.

Tora made an impudent gesture, which Tsukiyo ignored. Then they all began the journey down their chosen paths.


	4. Winds of Spring

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, or most of the characters that appear in this work. The poem is "Ulalume" by Edgar A. Poe, and the chapter titles come from "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by Po Chu-i.

Chapter 4: Winds of Spring

_And now, as the night was senescent  
And the star-dials pointed to morn--  
And the star-dials hinted at morn--  
At the end of our path a liquescent  
And nebulous lustre was born,  
Out of which a miraculous crescent  
Arose with a duplicate horn--  
Astarte's bediamonded crescent  
Distinct with its duplicate horn._

The path Tora and Opalmon took meandered gently through flowery meadows crisscrossed by crystalline springs. The leaves in the trees were bright and new, some barely more than buds. Light grey clouds occasionally blocked the sun, bringing shifts in warmth and cold.

Opalmon stopped suddenly and looked around.

"What is it?" Tora asked.

"I'm not sure...something's here..."

'Something' was indeed there, and the next moment, without warning, it snatched Tora and dragged him into the bushes.

"Tora!" The digimon was after him in a flash. The moment she caught sight of the perpetrator—a fire-orange tigermon—she attacked. "Fire Opal!"

The tigermon was knocked off balance, and dropped the human.

"Nacre Beam!" Opalmon's weaker attack sheered off a tree branch that fell on the tigermon. "You do not mess with my partner," Opalmon informed it.

"I'm the strongest digimon there is," Tigermon growled. "I will 'mess' with whomever I want!"

"Strength doesn't always ensure victory, Tigermon. I thought you learned that the last time we fought."

"If I remember correctly," Tigermon said smuggly, "I won."

"Only because that traitor Catmon switched sides..."

Tigermon laughed. "Just because she decided your precious Fireshield League isn't always right."

"What are you doing here, anyway?" she asked. "You're a digimon; you don't belong in the Underworld."

"Neither do you, Opalmon," Tigermon pointed out. "And what are you doing with a human? I thought the Fireshield League didn't like humans."

"News flash," Opalmon stepped closer to stand in front of Tora protectively, "I'm a digidestined digimon now."

Tigermon smiled menacingly. "Isn't that interesting..."

"Answer me, Tigermon: what are you doing in the Underworld? Does it have something to do with Daemon?"

The sun emerged again from behind a cloud, and Tigermon's yellow stare took on an eerie gleam. "You have no idea what kind of power you're up against. Burning Blair!" a glaring light paired with a high-pitched buzz issued from Tigermon's jaws.

Opalmon threw herself over Tora. His digivice began to glow.

"Opalmon digivolve to...Lazulimon!" The giant blue feline digimon pounced on Tigermon. "Lapis Claw!"

Tigermon cowered beneath her, and tried to wriggle out of her grasp.

"It looks like you're not the strongest, after all."

"What are you going to do to me?" he asked.

"I'm going to tell you to return to the digiworld, and never bother me or my partner again." She released him. As he ran away, she added, "Daemon is dangerous! If he prevails, no one will be safe, not even those who help him now!"

When Tigermon was out of sight, Lazulimon turned to Tora. "Climb on my back. We can go faster, and I'm not confident that Tigermon was alone."


	5. Deeper Than the Days

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, or most of the characters that appear in this work. The poem is "Ulalume" by Edgar A. Poe, and the chapter titles come from "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by Po Chu-i.

Chapter 5: Deeper Than the Days

_And I said: "She is warmer than Dian;_

_She rolls through an ether of sighs--_

_She revels in a region of sighs:_

_She has seen that the tears are not dry on_

_These cheeks, where the worm never dies,_

_And has come past the stars of the Lion_

_To point us the path to the skies--_

_To the Lethean peace of the skies--_

_Come up, in despite of the Lion,_

_To shine on us with her bright eyes--_

_Come up through the lair of the Lion,_

_With love in her luminous eyes."_

Kari and Yolei found themselves walking through a dry, hilly grassland. Fluffy cumulus clouds drifted lazily across a sky so brilliantly blue it almost hurt to look at it. The hot air smelled of dry grass and dust.

"We should take a rest," Yolei suggested. She sat down on the grass beside the trail. After a moment, she remembered that Kari had recently been mysteriously comatose. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I'm starting to feel better," she assured her, even though her body felt like it was buzzing, like she'd been electrocuted. Kari wasn't the kind who necessarily told the truth if it meant other people would worry about her.

"What happened to you and Ken?" Yolei asked quietly.

"I'm not sure. We were in a strange place where we could see memories."

"I was worried. I was afraid you would never wake up."

Kari glanced down. Her mouth opened, but for a moment she didn't know exactly how to say what she wanted to say. It was time she told Yolei about Ken.

"Kari, what is it?" Yolei asked when her friend didn't speak.

"There's something you should know. It's about...When you were sleeping off Xtoyilmon's venom, we weren't sure you would wake up. Ken was especially worried about you. He stayed by your side most of the night."

"There's a reason he has the Crest of Kindness," Yolei said, smiling.

Kari gave her an incredulous look. Yolei wasn't dense, why was she missing this? "It's more than that. He cares about you, Yolei. More than as a friend."

She scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous!"

"I'm not. Yolei, he's the one who wrote that anonymous poem to you. It wasn't Tora. He's crazy about you."

"If that were true, why haven't I noticed it?"

"You're the one he's trying to hide it from. Ken is still very good at hiding his feelings."

Yolei sighed. "I'm not his type, Kari."

"What makes you think that?"

She didn't reply for a moment, and when she did, she didn't sound happy. "Kari, you're so smart, I can't believe you can't see it. You're his soul mate. I've known it ever since that day in the woods, when Ken was freaking out because he could sense the Dark Ocean. You could reach him, I couldn't. You're both kind and sensitive. You need each other."

"He needs you," she argued. "It's like if you went out with Davis. You might have a lot of fun, but in the end it wouldn't work out because you're too much alike."

"I wish people would stop comparing me to Davis; I find it very insulting."

"You're both outgoing and confident. That's why Ken and Davis are best friends. They complement each other. Just like you and Ken would."

"It wouldn't work out," Yolei muttered.

"Why not? You used to have the biggest crush on him. Why do you think he doesn't have a girlfriend, when so many girls want to go out with him?"

"I'm not good enough for him," Yolei whispered.

Something about the way she said it made Kari stop. The phrase was one people usually used as an excuse when they wanted to break up with someone, but Yolei made it sound like she really meant it. "You thought you were good enough for your ex boyfriends. In fact, you thought you were too good for them. Isn't that why you eventually broke up with them? Yolei, what's wrong?"

She looked troubled. She stood up and started walking again without answering.

"Yolei!" Kari sprinted after her. "Tell me."

"Nothing!" Yolei almost screamed.

"You had a crush on him, and then when he became a digidestined you never even flirted with him. You expect me to believe that was because you thought I was interested in him, or he was interested in me? Come on. What's the real reason, Yolei?"

Yolei halted in her step. The real reason was something she didn't want to ever admit to anyone, but Kari wasn't giving her much choice. "Promise you'll never tell anyone, _especially _Ken."

"I promise," Kari said, her curiosity tinged with concern.

Yolei turned around, but she didn't meet Kari's eye. "It never stopped."

"What do you mean?"

"My crush. On...on Ken. When I found out he was the Digimon Emperor, I tried to make it stop. I hated myself for not seeing it; I thought maybe I didn't want to see it. I thought I made myself hate him, but I had these dreams..."

"You had...romantic dreams about the Emperor?" Kari asked in shock.

She nodded.

Kari blinked several times, trying to figure out what exactly that meant. "Did they stop after we defeated him?"

"Before, actually, and I know what you're thinking; I felt the same way. I hated myself for it. I disgusted me, and I did my best to convince myself that he disgusted me. I didn't want to forgive him." She took a deep, shaky breath. "But then I did, but Ken had changed so much...he was so broken, and I knew you were the one who could help him heal." She turned again and kept walking, not wanting to see the look on Kari's face even peripherally.

"That's not true," Kari said after a minute. "I might have helped him deal with his guilt and fear, but you convinced him to join us. You were the one who could make him laugh. Whatever you felt about the Emperor, you put those feelings aside. They shouldn't matter anymore, if you've really forgiven Ken."

Yolei turned back, and the look on her face was frightening, a mixture of sadness and anger. "THIS ISN'T ABOUT KEN!" she cried. "Ken is the kindest, most wonderful person I know. The things he's been through, the things he's overcome just make me respect him more. This is about me, Kari. The dreams I had indicate terrible things about me. Ken worked so hard to free himself of darkness, he shouldn't love anyone with any trace of it. The last thing he needs is a girlfriend who was ever in love with the Digimon Emperor—Ken's greatest enemy, the person he hates more than anyone else ever. And if Ken knew the truth he would hate me, too."

Kari shook her head. "He would never hate you. Not for some silly dreams. And if you've really, truly, completely forgiven him then the friendship you have with him and the relationship you could have with him don't have anything to do with the Emperor, or with the boy genius you fell in love with on TV. Our Ken has nothing to do with either of those people. And besides, if Ken can change, so can you."

Yolei was blinking rapidly, but she couldn't keep a tear or two from spilling out of her eyes. "I don't know..."

"Think about it," Kari said gently.

They resumed walking. Kari took the lead. She didn't speak, understanding that Yolei had a lot to think about. Yolei trailed behind, no longer seeing the landscape around her. She wasn't sure what she should think. She recalled times when she and Ken had been together, had shared some joke or some incidental touch that had made her stomach flutter. In those moments, she completely forgot that Ken had ever been the Emperor, or that she had ever dreamed about him. The suggestion that Ken liked her made her rethink some things. But it probably wasn't true. Kari must have been mistaken. She had considered the possibility that Ken liked her before, but dismissed those impressions as her own wishful thinking misinterpreting Ken's characteristic kindness.

But, she admitted to herself, there was one thing of which she was certain: she wanted what Kari said to be true. Wanted it a lot.

* * *

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	6. The Feathered Coat

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, or most of the characters that appear in this work. The poem is "Ulalume" by Edgar A. Poe, and the chapter titles come from "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by Po Chu-i.

Chapter 6: The Feathered Coat

_But Psyche, uplifting her finger,  
Said: "Sadly this star I mistrust--  
Her pallor I strangely mistrust:  
Oh, hasten! - oh, let us not linger!  
Oh, fly! - let us fly! - for we must."  
In terror she spoke, letting sink her  
Wings until they trailed in the dust--  
In agony sobbed, letting sink her  
Plumes till they trailed in the dust--  
Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust._

The path Davis and Ken chose led first through a forest afire with autumn colors, but as the trail sloped upward, the trees' colors faded to brown, and then to grey and dead-looking as they climbed higher. They eventually reached a pine forest that was veiled in color-sapping mist like something out of a Hasegawa Tohaku painting.

"This is getting creepy," Davis said.

"No kidding."

As the dark, still, and silent trees passed them, fading into view for a minute only to vanish in the fog behind them, they maintained a silence of their own, as though they sensed that to attract undue attention in this place was dangerous.

And then the trees came to an abrupt stop at the top of a cliff. The path ended at the feet of a statue of a lion with the head of a beautiful woman and eagle wings.

"Dude, it looks kind of like Nefertimon."

"It's a sphinx," Ken said.

"I guess we have to turn back," Davis said.

Ken shook his head. "I think there's something we need to do..."

"You are correct, human." The voice sounded like it came from the chest of the motionless statue. Neither Ken nor Davis was much surprised by this.

"Okay, what?" Davis asked.

"Answer one riddle. If you answer correctly, I will help you on your quest. Answer incorrectly, and I will kill you both."

Davis looked confused. "Why?"

"Because I _feel _like it," the sphinx responded impatiently. "I'm a demon; what do you expect?"

"Well how do we know you won't kill us anyway if we get it right?"

Ken answered. "Underworld monsters are incapable of breaking their promises."

"You've had dealings with us before?" the sphinx asked.

"Yes." He looked at Davis. "Maybe we should turn back."

"You may find that difficult," the sphinx said.

They turned around to find that the path had disappeared and the fog was thicker than ever.

"So few travelers come to play with me, I'm afraid if you decline I will be very upset."

Ken turned back, looking weary. "Do we each get one guess, or do we have to agree on a guess?"

"I will give you each one guess."

"And we both get to live if one of us guesses correctly?"

"Yes, and you will both die if neither of you guesses correctly."

Ken glanced at Davis, who nodded. He looked back at the sphinx. "What is your riddle?"

"My house has three doors and no windows. One door is red, one is yellow, and one is green. One is locked. One is rigged so that when you turn the doorknob a pit full of poisonous snakes opens beneath you. The red door is next to the green door. The door on the right is not locked. Oh, and one has a doorknob with an electric current that will kill you if you touch it. How will you enter my house?"

"Uh...I'd like to use my fifty/fifty," Davis joked.

The sphinx broke her illusion of complete motionlessness in order to turn her head slightly and give Davis a withering look. Then she shifted her gaze back to Ken. "You will guess first."

"The riddle is impossible. None of the doors open safely. Unless the electric door is the locked one, and even then you haven't given enough information to figure out the solution."

"Haven't I?"

Ken sighed. He was usually good at these kinds of riddles, he could see the clues laid out in his mind; but this one seemed truly impossible. But he still had a 33 percent chance with a random guess. "The green door," he guessed. The color green was associated with life, and was a sacred color in the religions of ancient Mesoamerica, which he knew from his previous visits had a strong influence in the Underworld.

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. "That's the answer."

"Wrong!"

He felt his heart sink with disappointment. But now Davis had half a chance to guess the right door. Ken went over the riddle in his head again, trying to deduce the correct answer in hopes that he could give Davis a hint.

"Can you repeat the question?" Davis requested.

The sphinx indulged him. Her low voice held anticipation. She believed she had already won. "So tell me, human," she said after repeating the riddle, "how would you get into my house?"

After a long pause, Davis shrugged. "Honestly, I'd just knock." The sphinx stared at him. "You didn't say any of the doors would kill me for knocking, and then whatever door you opened I'd know was safe. Besides, there's no way I'd just walk into your house without asking, right?"

She looked at Ken. "Can't argue with that logic. You could learn a lot from this one." She opened a stone box that had been hidden beneath her paws. From it she took two cloaks of white swan feathers. "No human has ever solved my riddle; though, admittedly, few have ever tried. Take these. Find ruins of a stone temple in the swamp, leave the cloaks there. If you steal them, I will track you down and kill you. A path will lead from the temple to Gruesomon's castle. It is very, very dangerous. See that you keep to the path; your lives depend on it. And try not to cross Gruesomon."

"Thanks," Davis said as he took one of the cloaks. "Hey, do you know where we can find Phytomon and Xylomon?"

"I don't know where Xylomon is these days, but you'll find Phytomon in Gruesomon's castle."

"Thank you," Ken said, still in a daze at Davis's amazing luck.

They put on the cloaks, and felt their bodies stretch, squeeze, and contort. It wasn't exactly a pleasant sensation, but not painful either. They looked at each other and realized they'd been transformed into swans. Davis tried to say something, but it came out as a squeaking honk. He waddled to the edge of the cliff, spread out his wings, and leaped off. He fell for a few seconds before he could get the position of his wings quite right, then he began to soar. He gave his wings an experimental flap, and felt the air rush through his feathers and a surge of energy lifting him upward and forward into the air.

Ken inched cautiously to the edge of the cliff. He looked over, craning his long neck to see below, where a dense canopy of grey-green trees pressed against the cliff base. Closing his eyes and remembering everything he'd learned about the physics of bird flight in school, he hopped off the rock. He spread his wings and flapped frantically, trying to push the rapidly-approaching ground away, and then he was flying, though his movements were rather jerky, graceless, and frenzied.

Davis flew around to join him. Ken thought he might have been showing off. He tried to smile, but the hard beak he now had in place of a mouth prevented that expression.

In a few minutes, both swans were soaring gracefully over forests, hills, and lakes. Too soon they spotted the temple ruins, a structure of grey stone blocks and pillars at the edge of a lily pad-covered lake. The two swan-boys circled around, then landed gingerly in the lake. They waddled into the ruins, then magically shed their swan cloaks and returned to human form.

"I wonder if that's what if feels like to digivolve," Davis said.

"Maybe." Ken found a stone box like the one the sphinx had, where he reluctantly placed the swan cloak. He would miss flying.

Davis did the same. He smiled sadly. "It was fun while it lasted. And just think of the look on everyone's faces when we tell them what we did!"

Ken smiled back and nodded. "Yeah."

They found the path the sphinx had told them about, and followed into a dim forest. Mushrooms grew from the trees. Fireflies occasionally flashed in the bushes. Forest smells pervaded the air.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Ken remarked.

"You have a bad feeling about everything," Davis claimed. "Come on. I bet we can make it to the castle before the others do."


	7. Clove the Ether

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. The poem is "Ulalume" by Edgar A. Poe, and the chapter titles come from "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by Po Chu-i.

A/N: No one reviewed my last chapter. That makes me a little sad. Is anyone reading this?

Chapter 7: Clove the Ether

_I replied: "This is nothing but dreaming:_

_Let us on by this tremulous light!_

_Let us bathe in this crystalline light!_

_Its Sybilic splendour is beaming_

_With Hope and in Beauty tonight!--_

_See! - it flickers up the sky through the night!_

_Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming,_

_And be sure it will lead us aright--_

_We safely may trust to a gleaming,_

_That cannot but guide us aright,_

_Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night."_

Izzy and Tsukiyo walked through open woodland that was softly blanketed in snow. The sun sinking low in the powder-blue sky caused the snow to sparkle with rainbows. Though there were no tracks following the path besides their own, it was crossed on occasion by the footprints of deer, foxes, birds, rabbits, and other small animals. With a smile, Tsukiyo quoted a poem by Murasaki Shikibu. "'Along the cliffs of these mountains, locked in snow/Are the tracks of only one. That one is you.'"

Izzy took her hand. "An excellent allusion for this halcyon hyperborean canvass, my pulchritudinous companion."

"I bet you say that to all your girlfriends."

"Which is precisely why I don't have any but you."

Tsukiyo pulled him into a kiss. He could feel her smile against his lips.

The gentle silence was broken by a sharp caw.

They looked up into the bare branches of the nearest tree, where a large black bird looked down on them.

"_Corvus corax, _the common raven," Tsukiyo said. "In one Ancient Greek myth, Athena had a crow for a companion. She discarded it for the owl when the crow proved to be a tattletale; the constellation Corvus was put in the sky as a warning against tattletales in another myth associated with Apollo. In Norse mythology, Odin had two ravens, Huginn and Muninn—'thought' and 'memory'—that flew around the world every day and kept him updated. In some Native American legends, the Raven helped create the world by stealing the sun and carrying it into the sky."

"Ravens are considered by some ornithologists to be among the most intelligent of birds. Some research indicates they have the capacity to think abstractly, communicate complex concepts, and make tools," Izzy added.

They observed it a moment longer, then continued down the path. The raven flew in front of them and landed on the trail, splashing snowflakes across its perfect blackness, and cawed at them.

"Do you suppose it wants us to follow it?" Tsukiyo asked.

"I don't know."

The raven cawed again, then flew to a tree off the trail.

The humans looked at each other, perplexed. Then, as if they'd discussed it and come to an agreement, they both followed the raven off the trail.

The bird kept flying a few trees ahead, making sure the humans didn't fall behind. It led them further and further away from the trail. The sun set and the temperature began to drop. At first the raven's black form could be easily seen against the crepuscular glow, and after the light faded and the stars came out, it cawed regularly as it led them onward. Tsukiyo and Izzy huddled close against the cold, and though neither mentioned it, they both remembered other raven stories in which the birds weren't portrayed so favorably.

At last, they saw lights ahead. As they drew closer, they realized the lights came from the windows of cottages in a small village. Indistinct forms could be seen moving to and fro in some of the windows.

The raven landed in front of the door of the largest cottage and cried out. The door opened. Izzy and Tsukiyo flinched against the sudden brightness.

"Come in. Don't just stand there in the cold," said a pleasant voice.

They did as asked. The cottage was warm, cozy, and cluttered with decorations from every culture and time period Izzy and Tsukiyo could think of. The raven flew past them and landed on the mantel above the fireplace.

Their host, a rotund humanoid with a long white beard, nodded to an overstuffed sofa. "Please have a seat. My wife will be in shortly with dinner. Until then, please make yourself at home."

"Thank you." Izzy plopped into the sofa. "I'm Koushiro Izumi, but everyone calls me Izzy."

Tsukiyo didn't take a seat yet. She looked at him suspiciously. "My name is Tsukiyo Nishiyama, and everyone _calls _me Tsukiyo Nishiyama. Mind if I ask your name?"

"Oh, I've been called pretty much everything in my life time," he said amicably, evidently taking no offence at her cold tone. "Around here, they call me Laetusmon. My wife's name is Gaudiamon, and our little friend here," he walked to the mantle and smiled fondly at the raven, "is called Ash. She's very intelligent, even though she doesn't always choose to act like it. She told us you would be coming."

A woman entered with bowls of some delicious-smelling concoction. She was as elderly and plump as her husband, and just as robust. "You poor children! Look at you. You're shivering. Here, have some stew. I'll put on some hot chocolate, and the cookies will be done in about a half hour." She handed one bowl of stew to Laetusmon, and another to Izzy, but before she gave one to Tsukiyo, she exclaimed, "My goodness, child, sit down! You've been on your feet all day. I don't want you to faint."

"I won't faint; I'm fine," she protested, a bit bemused.

Gaudiamon looked at Izzy, then back at Tsukiyo, calculating. "So you're just going to let that handsome young man sit there all by himself?"

With an air of nonchalance, Tsukiyo sat on the sofa next to Izzy.

Gaudiamon handed her a bowl. "That's better. You really must learn to be less stubborn, Tsukiyo. A little bit of stubbornness is good, but not if it keeps you from doing what you really want." With that, she hustled back to the kitchen.

Laetusmon smiled. "I'm afraid she's going to insist you stay the night. This world can be very dangerous in the dark. Besides, we're not far from Gruesomon's castle. And it's only a half-day's walk along the Linden Tree Path to the Slate Cliff, where you'll find the cave Xylomon is kept in."

"How do you know we're looking for Xylomon?" Izzy asked.

He smiled mysteriously. "I know a lot about you, digidestined."

At that moment, Gaudiamon returned with hot chocolate and a plate of sugar cookies. Before she could set them down on the coffee table, Ash swooped down and snatched up a cookie. "You and your sweet tooth," Gaudiamon scolded. "Have you no manners? We have guests."

Ash tossed her head flippantly and began picking at her stolen cookie.

Izzy and Tsukiyo were promptly handed mugs of hot chocolate, which proved to be the most delicious either had ever tasted. The cookies were also extraordinary. Laetusmon set sleeping mats on the floor near the fireplace. The two humans—who, in truth, were exhausted by their day's journey—quickly fell asleep.

* * *

They awoke to the smell of sausage and pancakes. 

"So you're awake," Gaudiamon commented when they walked in the kitchen. "Breakfast has been ready for ten minutes."

"Thank you very much, but we really should be on our way," Izzy said politely.

"Nonsense. You need food to keep up your strength. You have a long, dangerous day ahead of you."

The door opened, and a gust of icy wind carrying a flurry of snowflakes blew through the kitchen. Laetusmon pulled the door closed behind him. He was carrying two heavy coats and four snowshoes. "You'll need these. There was quite a blizzard last night, though I trust the two of you slept through it soundly."

"They're not going anywhere without a warm breakfast in them," Gaudiamon insisted.

"Of course not. Besides, I still haven't given them their parting gifts."

"That's really not necessary; you've done so much for us already," Izzy said.

Laetusmon just laughed and shook his head. Then he sat down at the kitchen table, where five places were set. Ash had perched on the edge of the table, pacing impatiently in front of her plate. Tsukiyo and Izzy exchanged a look. They were both suspicious, Tsukiyo more so than Izzy. Tsukiyo was considering bolting for the door now; Izzy was willing to stay for breakfast and then see what happened. After a moment, Tsukiyo nodded almost imperceptibly, and they both sat at the table. They weren't telepathic, and didn't have any mystical bond like a digidestined had with a digimon, but they knew each other so well that a simple glance could communicate a great deal.

After finishing breakfast, Laetusmon left again, and returned with two wooden boxes. He handed the larger one to Tsukiyo, and the smaller to Izzy.

"What is this?" Tsukiyo opened her box and carefully took out a jade statuette. Thick, cylindrical, about as long as a typical office pen, the intricately-carved jade fit comfortably in her hand. It was an amalgam of dark green, light green, white, and lavender jade. She held it closer to her face and studies the carvings on it: detailed images of flowers, trees, animals, people, dragons, and various symbols. "This is exquisite." When she looked up, Izzy closed the box he'd received and pocketed it. "What was in yours?" Tsukiyo inquired.

"Nothing," he answered quickly.

"Nothing?"

"I'll tell you later."

Laetusmon smiled. His eyes sparkled. "Both of your gifts will prove their full worth only later, though I believe Izzy already knows how to use his. You should be going. Ash will guide you as far as Gruesomon's castle." He handed them the coats and snowshoes he'd brought earlier. "Good luck."

"You've done so much for us; how can we possibly repay you?" Tsukiyo asked.

He chuckled. "Don't worry about it. There's nothing that makes me happier than making other people happy. If you really want to repay me, be kind to others."

Tsukiyo bowed deeply, then she and Izzy donned the coats and snowshoes and departed. Laetusmon and Gaudiamon waved to them from the doorway. Ash flew ahead of them, guiding them through the grey morning.

"Friendly people...or demons, or whatever they are," Izzy commented.

"Very. And enigmatic."

"Do you think it's possible..."

"I think it's probable. But that just raises more questions."

They were quiet for a minute.

"If we'd been out in the blizzard last night, we could have died," Izzy said.

"I know."

"I hope the others were alright."


	8. Moons and Dawns

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. The poem is "Ulalume" by Edgar A. Poe, and the chapter titles come from "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by Po Chu-i.

Chapter 8: Moons and Dawns

Lazulimon and Tora caught sight of the castle through the trees. They slowed to a stop.

"I suppose we should wait for the others," said Tora.

"At least we can do some investigating."

Tora slip off Lazulimon's back. "I have the feeling we're being watched."

Lazulimon dedigivolved to Opalmon, then she and Tora slipped off the trail into the trees.

The moon, blurred by a thin gauze of clouds, silhouetted the gothic spires of the castle. No lights shone in any windows. Nothing stirred. It brooded over the forest like a gravestone, or a skeleton of some large and terrifying creature, something still threatening even in death.

"Maybe it's deserted," Tora said.

"Don't count on it," Opalmon cautioned. "There's something evil about this castle. I suggest that we wait until the others arrive, or at least until morning."

Tora agreed.

They waited for over an hour, talking softly and watching the castle. The moon set and the stars were just beginning to fade when Opalmon suddenly jumped up and exclaimed. "Tora! Look out!"

Black tendrils that had been slowly, quietly, slithering around them on the ground and in the trees suddenly constricted, creating a tight, sticky net that ensnared both Tora and his digimon.

"You are trespassing on land belonging to Gruesomon. Bad idea," said a voice from the shadows of the forest. "You are now my prisoners. You may now commence begging for mercy."


	9. Under the Earth

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. The poem is "Ulalume" by Edgar A. Poe, and the chapter titles come from "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by Po Chu-i.

Chapter 9: Under the Earth

Stars were just beginning to twinkle in the twilight sky when Kari and Yolei passed a cave on a hillside from which delicious scents drifted. They realized suddenly how very, very hungry they were.

"We should keep going," Kari said. "We're already in the Underworld; I don't think going any deeper would be a good idea."

"You're absolutely right," Yolei agreed vigorously. "Let's just keep going."

Neither of them continued.

"What do you think that smell is?" Yolei asked.

"I have no idea. It smells like some kind of herb."

"Maybe it's mushrooms."

Kari looked at the dark hole in the rock. "I'm telling you, Yolei, we'd be crazy to go down there."

"I brought a flashlight." Yolei dug through her backpack until she found the small flashlight, which she turned on and pointed into the mouth of the cave. "Remember that pool of soup where we found the last Destiny Stone? It could be something like that."

"Okay," Kari finally reluctantly agreed. "We'll go in for just a minute, then we have to keep going."

Yolei led the way into the mouth of the cave. They went deeper into the hillside until they came to place where there was a table set with all sorts of aromatic food. No one was there.

"I've had dreams like this," Yolei said, salivating.

"We need to get out of here now. Come on."

They began to retreat, but then they heard footsteps behind them.

"Hide," Kari suggested. She pulled Yolei into a crevasse. They held their breath and listened to the footsteps getting closer.

"The food smells delicious, Fomon," one said. "It almost smells like human."

One pair of footsteps stopped, and they heard a loud sniffing. "I think that _is _human. Where did you get human, Fomon?"

The other footsteps stopped. "I didn't cook human." This one sniffed, as well. "But you're right. There is human here. It's been a while since I've had human, but it smells fresh.

One lit a lamp, and Yolei was able to see their forms. There were four of them. They were huge, muscular, and grey, with horns protruding from their heads, chins, and cheekbones. Their jaws stuck out, with long, curved, interlocking teeth exposed. Their eyes glowed green.

As Yolei watched the one that carried the lamp, another one came into view, its face inches from hers. "Found you!"

She squeaked a miniature scream as the creatures long-clawed hand grasped her by her shirt collar and pulled her out.

"Ah, another one." The creature's other hand reached out and grabbed Kari.

"A rare feast," said another. "They look young and tender."

"No," Yolei said, "we really aren't. Trust me, we're very tough and chewy...and way too salty."

The monsters laughed. "Put them on the table," said the one with the lamp.

"You really don't want to eat us," Kari said. "We..."

"We don't have all that much meat on us," Yolei tried. "And we'd be so bland. You'll need spices. Some parsley...maybe some oregano...and definitely a dash of cilantro. Not to mention some onions and mushrooms to top us off."

"Yolei!" Kari gave her a look. "We're not a pizza!"

"Well I don't know about you, but if I'm going to be eaten I at least want to make a memorable meal."

The creatures were laughing harder. "With food like this, who needs entertainment?" chuckled the one carrying them.

"Look," said Kari, "you've already got a good meal tonight. Why don't you let us go?"

"Or save us for later?" Yolei suggested. "Fatten us up to eat us?"

The one with the lamp brought it close to her face. "They are rather skinny, and it would be a shame to waste the meal I've already made for tonight's dinner. Put them in the cage, Faimon. We can eat them tomorrow."

Faimon carried them into the kitchen, where it shoved them into a cage next to the stove and locked the door. "At least that bought us some time," Kari said.

They could hear the monsters talking and laughing as they ate their dinner in the other room. Then one asked another to make more tapioca pudding. The kitchen door opened, and one of the monsters came in. It opened the refrigerator and took out a plastic container full of tapioca. It then took out a large bowl, put a teaspoon of tapioca pudding in it, and began stirring it with a large wooden spoon, all while Kari and Yolei watched with interest. With each stir, the amount of pudding doubled until the bowl was full. The monster put the spoon in the sink and took the bowl of pudding into the dining room.

"Did you see that?" Yolei asked in an excited whisper. "Do you know what that means? Tsukiyo wrote an essay about the possibility of digital matter replication devices. Sure, we're not in the digiworld, but this at least proves it's possible."

"But can it help us escape?" Kari asked.

Yolei became thoughtful. "Maybe...But first we have to get out of this cage."

Kari sighed as she poked at the lock. "If only Gatomon were here."

They worked for hours, trying everything they could think of to pick the lock, long after the Onimon went to sleep. One of them fell asleep against the kitchen door, blocking it with its body. They could hear it snoring.

"We might be able to break the lock."

"How?"

Yolei examined the lock and the strength of the bars around it. "If we both kick it at the same time, as hard as we can, it may break open."

Kari looked at her skeptically, but nodded. "It's worth a try."

"When I count to 'three' you kick right below the lock with your right foot, and I'll kick right above it with my left foot."

They both backed up and took careful aim. "One...two...THREE!"

Their efforts rewarded them with nothing more than a loud clank and jarring pain in both their legs.

"That sure worked," Kari said.

"It can, we just have to try it again." Yolei winced as she rubbed her leg in a futile effort to ease the pain.

"Just one more time," Kari agreed reluctantly.

They switched places. "One...two...three."

Once again, they kicked the bars around the lock forcefully, and once again there was a loud noise and incredible pain, but this time the lock bent and the door swung open. They instinctively held their breath to see if their guard had heard. After a long, tense moment of silence, its soft snoring resumed.

"Now what?" Kari whispered.

Yolei stepped out of the cage into the kitchen and began searching around until she found a sharp knife. "Find a pot and put it on the stove," she said.

Kari did, then turned on the stove. Yolei took the magic spoon and placed it next to the pot, then held her arm over the pot and tentatively touched the knife to it.

"What are you doing!" Kari asked in a shocked and worried whisper.

"Making blood pudding," she whispered back. "With any luck, the monsters will smell it and open the door, and we can escape while they're eating it."

Kari looked slightly disgusted, but didn't protest. "Hold on a second," She took a cotton washcloth, soaked a corner of it with water from the sink, and washed Yolei's arm.

Yolei took a deep breath as she pushed the serrated knife into her skin, then closed her eyes. 'I have to do this to escape,' she thought. 'I have to escape to live. I have to live to see Hawkmon and my family again, to find out if Ken likes me, to grow up and make a lot of money and have a family. I have to do this or Kari will die.' She pulled the knife across her skin and exhaled. Blood ran down her arm and dripped into the pot. Wasting no time, she began stirring with the magic spoon until the pot was full of blood. A horrible metallic stench filled the room.

Kari washed the blood off, then tied the cloth firmly around Yolei's arm.

They heard the monster in the next room sniff. They heard it stand up, then slowly creak open the door. The two girls hid in the shadows next to the door and waited. The monster walked past without noticing them. It went straight to the pot of blood on the stove. Its long tongue flicked out to taste it.

"Run," Yolei breathed. In a second, they were off, sprinting down the darkened hall.

They heard a sound like a reversed roar that sent chills down their spines. They glanced back and saw that two of the monsters were chasing them.

They emerged from the cave mouth into a moonlit night. Cicadas and crickets sang in the grasses, but the girls didn't notice them. They began running down the path as fast as they could.

"Are they still chasing us?" Kari asked.

Yolei glanced back. "Yes. And I think they're gaining."

"If we survive this..." Before she could finish that thought, she saw the wooden spoon in Yolei's hand, still wet with her blood. "You still have the spoon?"

"Yeah. I figured we could at least get something out of this ordeal."

"That's why they're chasing us!" Kari said in dismay. "You stole it!"

"They tried to eat us!"

"That's no excuse for stealing, Yolei. Give it back."

"Fine," Yolei said with a sigh that sounded just like a pant. She turned around and tossed the spoon as far as she could into the grassland. The two monsters ran after it, giving their quarry time to complete their escape.

Kari and Yolei didn't stop running until dawn, when they collapsed, exhausted, in the forest near the castle.

After a minute, Yolei began laughing hysterically.

"What…is…so…funny?" Kari asked between gasps.

"I think I dropped my flashlight."

Kari started laughing too.


	10. That Memory, That Anguish

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. The poem is "Ulalume" by Edgar A. Poe, and the chapter titles come from "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by Po Chu-i.

A/N: This is the chapter inspired by "Ulalume," and contains its final stanzas.

Chapter 10: That Memory, That Anguish

_Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,_

_And tempted her out of her gloom--_

_And conquered her scruples and gloom;_

_And we passed to the end of the vista,_

_But were stopped by the door of a tomb--_

_By the door of a legended tomb;_

_And I said: "What is written, sweet sister,_

_On the door of this legended tomb?"_

_She replied: "Ulalume - Ulalume--_

_'Tis the vault of they lost Ulalume!"_

* * *

The swamp grew darker and darker as night fell. Ken's mood didn't improve, either. The dark trees spreading over them seemed threatening. 

"Something wrong, Ken?" Davis asked. He was much less affected by the solemn scene.

"This swamp reminds me of a place I used to go when I was living in the digital world."

Davis looked around. It wasn't the kind of place he would choose to hang out. "Don't you think it's kinda depressing?"

"I think that was the point."

The trail skirted the edges of a brackish lake. The cloudy sky above glowed enough to light the trail, and the dark towers of the castle could be seen ahead.

"I guess we're on the right track," Davis commented.

Ken didn't say anything.

The trail veered away from the lakeshore, and they entered the swamp's shadows again. Will-o'-the-wisps floated above the bogs.

"Davis, maybe we should turn back."

"But we're almost there," Davis argued. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure."

"It's probably just your imagination." Davis started talking about soccer in a blatant attempt to lighten the mood, but Ken didn't pay much attention. There was something about this place that slipped into him as though the emotional and intellectual barriers he put up to keep it out weren't there. He couldn't feel anything except the cold foreboding, and he couldn't think of anything except unpleasant memories from his deep past.

The path went up a hill, away from the bogs. The skeletal trees thinned until they disappeared, leaving a landscape of loose dirt and rocks. When they reached the top of the hill, they were faced with a treeless expanse stretching between them and the forest surrounding the castle. Moonlight washed over the expanse. It was a cemetery.

"I guess we just have to go through it," Davis said. His cheerfulness sounded forced.

Ken walked down the hill like he was walking to his own execution. He stepped over the broken wooden gate into the graveyard. Stunted yellow grass grew in clumps near some of the worn, cracked, and fallen gravestones. A diaphanous film of mist hovered a few feet above the ground. Ken glanced around; he could almost hear things moving just out of sight.

The path led to the steps of a mausoleum.

"What does that say?" Davis asked.

Ken walked up to it and squinted at the words above the door, obscured in shadow. Then he closed his eyes and fell to his knees.

Davis put his hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

Ken shook slightly. Tears trickled out of his tightly-shut eyes. He didn't answer.

Davis read the inscription. _"Here lies one stolen from life before his time, condemned to death by the envy of his brother, whose soul also is here interred."_

The words made Ken realize the truth: all the healing he thought he'd done, every smile and moment of happiness he'd experienced in the past years had been a façade. He felt empty and cold inside. He was worthless; a dead creature going through the motions of being alive, and all that was stripped away by the inscription on the tomb.

_Then my heart it grew ashen and sober_

_As the leaves that were crisped and sere--_

_As the leaves that were withering and sere;_

_And I cried: "It was surely October_

_On this very night of last year_

_That I journeyed - I journeyed down here!--_

_That I brought a dread burden down here--_

_On this night of all nights in the year,_

_Ah, what demon hath tempted me here?_

_Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber--_

_This misty mid region of Weir--_

_Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber,_

_This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir."_

Davis looked from the inscription to his friend. Ken often had days when something would remind him of the past and he would get quiet and moody, when his sadness and guilt resurfaced, but he always got over them. This seemed to be worse. Did Ken think the inscription was talking about him?

He put his hand on Ken's shoulder. "Hey Ken, you know it's not true, right?"

Ken looked up, his face ethereal in the moonlight.

"You know you didn't kill your brother," Davis continued. "And you do have a soul. Whoever put this here is just trying to get to you, but you can't let them. We have to keep going."

Ken didn't move. He thought he felt friendship for Davis, but an insidious voice in his head asked if that was really true. How did he know what friendship felt like?

"We need to find those two digimon to help us stop Daemon. What if the others are already at the castle? Kari and Yolei and Izzy and Tsukiyo and Tora...what if they need our help? We have to keep going."

Ken nodded and stood up. Davis almost dragged him around the mausoleum, and they continued down the path.

Ken glanced back and shook his head, trying to clear it of the lingering dismal haze. A swirl of fog drifted past the tomb, and it seemed to fade away with it. Someone or something had put it in his path. But who? And why?

"See?" Davis said when they got out of the graveyard. "If you didn't have a soul, you wouldn't care if your friends were in trouble."

The mist ahead of them began shifting, then drew apart until a form that seemed to be made from the break in the mist approached them. "This isn't the first time your friend has saved you, Child of Darkness," said the amorphous creature.

"Who are you?" Davis asked.

The creature ignored him, but continued speaking to Ken in a gurgly, androgynous voice. "Some might be disappointed this ploy didn't break you, but I'm gratified to see the truth for myself. You are forever lost to us. And because of you your friends may be able to stop Daemon's plan."

Ken asked quietly, "What plan?"

" Daemon's greatest skill has always been gaining allies. Daemon makes deals to get what he wants. He wanted to get out of the Dark Ocean; who knows what deal he struck to achieve that end?"

"What is he talking about?" Davis asked Ken.

"You're lucky, digidestined," the thing continued. "You live in worlds where evil must hide in the shadows, where good generally prevails. Even in this world, evil enjoys some advantage, but we all know these underworlders are only out for themselves and will support whichever side benefits them at the moment. A very precarious position for us. You know better than any, Child of Darkness, that only when one has lost their own way will we be able to lead them to ours, and our path is a slippery one."

Ken stared intensely. "Who?" he asked darkly without expecting a straight answer.

"That's the joke, isn't it? None of you know. Not one of you." With that, the creature bounded forward, like a cat, and leaped over their heads, vanishing as though it was never there.

Ken began walking again.

Davis looked around in confusion. "You have any idea what that thing was talking about?"

Ken's answer turned out to be about as cryptic as the creature's message. "There are a lot of things about the Dark I didn't figure out until after I stopped being the Emperor. I thought I was the mastermind behind the chess board, but I was just a pawn. I think it is, too, and knows it. It wasn't threatening us; it was trying to warn us."

"Warn us of what?"

Ken kept his eyes stubbornly fixed on the trail ahead of them. "That our battle with Daemon will be harder than we expect."


	11. Searching, Never Finding

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. The chapter titles come from "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by Po Chu-i.

A/N: Long chapter coming up. I'm starting to get into that Kenlei I've been promising. Please review.

Chapter 11: Searching, Never Finding

Ken and Davis arrived at the castle well after midnight. They were both exhausted, and found a sheltered grove where they stopped to rest. In a few minutes, without meaning to, both fell asleep.

They awoke around dawn to the sound of laughter.

"Does that sound like Kari and Yolei to you?" Davis asked sleepily.

"Yes." Ken pushed himself up, and realized he was sore from the day of hiking.

They followed the sound of laughter and gasped breaths to where the girls were lying on the grass by the trail.

Yolei saw them and smiled. "Am I ever glad to see you!" She reached her hand toward Ken expectantly until he took it and pulled her to her feet.

"Why do you think they have four paths leading to the same place?" Davis wondered aloud as he looked at the four paths that converged on the castle gate.

"Because sometimes the journey is more important than the destination," Ken said. He looked back at the castle's tall, dark towers. "This has to be Gruesomon's castle. Phytomon might be in there somewhere."

Kari looked around. "I guess the others aren't here yet."

"Or they arrived before us and went inside the castle," Yolei suggested.

"So should we wait out here or go in and look for them?" Davis asked.

"I have an idea." Yolei pulled up a handful of grass, crushed it up, and smeared it on the castle wall. She wrote "Yolei, Kari, Ken, and Davis are searching inside the castle. Wait for us at the gate."

"Great idea, Yolei," said Kari.

They entered the gate. The path was choked with weeds, and thorn bushes overran what was once a garden. The castle looked empty, but didn't feel empty. They slowed as they approached the tall double doors.

Davis pushed one door open. The old hinges creaked, echoing into the dark halls. When their eyes adjusted to the dim light, they saw a large staircase leading to an upper floor.

"Ken, Yolei, how about you guys take the upper floor, and Davis and I will search the ground floor," Kari suggested.

"No, we should all stick together," Davis disagreed. "It's safer."

Kari glanced at Davis. He was trying to be a leader, and it was true that splitting up had at times proven to be a bad idea, but the castle looked deserted, and she wanted to give Ken and Yolei some time alone to talk. "But it will be faster if we split up, and I'd like to get out of here as soon as possible."

Davis shrugged. "Okay."

* * *

Ken and Yolei climbed the creaking wooden staircase. Daylight shining through windows at the end of the hallway revealed tattered tapestries hanging from the walls, dozens of doors at regular intervals, and assorted dusty wall hangings. 

Yolei was still peering down the hall when Ken went to the first door, which opened into an expansive bedroom. He moved on to the next door, and Yolei sprinted to catch up to him.

"How did you hurt your arm?" Ken asked without looking at her.

"Oh," she glanced down at the rag still tied around her wound. She'd forgotten about it, even though it still hurt. "I got that when Kari and I were escaping from the monsters." Her tone implied she didn't think any more explanation was necessary.

"I see."

They looked in a few more rooms without talking, then Yolei said, "Why are you being so quiet?"

"Some things happened on the way here that...that I'm thinking about."

"What was it, if you don't mind me asking?" When Ken didn't answer, Yolei nodded and rolled her eyes. He was in one of his moods again.

They opened a room that looked like a windowless torture chamber. It was lit by a single torch. They heard movement.

"Who's there?" a small voice asked from the shadows. "Please, don't hurt me anymore!"

Ken and Yolei followed the voice to a cage, where a large, furry creature crouched.

"We're not going to hurt you," Ken said.

The creature looked up. "Please get me out of here," it begged. "You don't know what Gruesomon is going to do to me."

Ken reached for the latch on the cage door, but Yolei put her hand on his arm to stop him. "Ken," she whispered, "it's a _wolf_."

"My name is Langmon," it said, "and I promise if you help me escape I won't hurt you."

"We're looking for someone named Phytomon," Yolei said. "Do you know where she is?"

"Phytomon? Yes. She's here. If you let me out, I can help you find her."

Ken released the latch, and Langmon burst out of the cage and ran around the room with the euphoria of freedom.

Yolei gave Ken a look. "I'm not sure about this," she said quietly.

"Don't worry," he replied. "We'll keep our eyes on him."

Langmon came back to them. "Okay," he said. "Let's go find Phytomon." He led the way down the hall, opening each door, taking one sniff, and moving on to the next.

Behind one door halfway down the hallway, another room was lit with firelight. Seven squirming mice hung by their tails over hot coals. "Save us!" they called. "Gruesomon is going to cook us and eat us!"

Ken entered the room.

"Come on," Langmon implored. "Phytomon isn't in there, and Gruesomon is going to be back any time."

"I have to help them," Ken stated as he began untangling the first mouse's tail.

"He's the digidestined of kindness," Yolei explained. She bit her lip with indecision; she wanted to help Ken, but didn't particularly want to touch a mouse.

Langmon sighed. He went to the next door and opened it, then went inside the dim room. "Hey, girl, come here. I found something."

Yolei went to the door and peered in, but she couldn't see much inside. "What?"

"I don't know. What do you think it is?"

She stepped cautiously into the room, but instantly she was pushed to the floor from behind. Langmon had been hiding behind the door. He pushed the door closed with his back to it.

Yolei looked up angrily. "You promised you wouldn't hurt us."

"I didn't want to, but I haven't eaten in days, and you just smell so delicious..." He took a step closer. "Can't I just have a little taste? One bite?"

"No!" She scooted back.

"One little nibble?"

Yolei's hand drifted to her pocket, where she'd put the knife she'd used to escape from the monsters, thinking it would be prudent to be armed in case they caught up with them.

Langmon leaped toward her. She stabbed at him with the knife, which lodged in his chest. A wisp of smoke curled out of the wound. But Yolei hadn't injured Langmon enough to stop him; the wound only made him angrier. He snapped at her, and she only barely dodged the flashing white teeth by rolling out of the way.

"Ken!" she yelled.

Langmon leaped again and tackled her. "You're lunch," he growled.

"Get away from her, or I'll shoot you."

Yolei and Langmon looked over to where Ken stood in the door, holding a crossbow he'd found hanging on the wall outside the room.

Yolei grabbed the knife and pushed it further into Langmon's chest. He howled, leaped up, and jumped through the window.

Ken ran to Yolei.

She decided to try an experiment. She closed her eyes and didn't move, and didn't answer when he asked if she was okay.

Ken kneeled and pulled her into his arms, cradling her gently. "Yolei?" he whispered.

She remained limp and unresponsive for a moment, enjoying the feeling of his arms around her. But then she decided she didn't want to make him worry too much. "Ken..." She blinked and looked up at him. "You saved my life."

He sighed with relief. "Can you move?"

She smiled. "Yeah." She started to get up, but pretended to stumble. Ken put his arm around her and helped her to her feet. She leaned against him. "I'll be okay," she assured him. "Nothing's broken, I just..."

"Do you want to sit down for a minute?"

"No," she answered quickly. "Just help me walk."

An unexpected voice shattered the moment. "What a clever little seductress."

Ken and Yolei spun around. Standing in the door was a woman wearing an elaborate dress with gloved hands, a spiny frill at the back of the collar, and a membranous red skirt crisscrossed with blue lines evocative of veins. Blond hair cascaded from a golden crown. Her large eyes, set in a small, pretty face, held a glint of cruelty.

"Gruesomon," Ken guessed. He unconsciously pulled Yolei closer.

"Funny: if you know who I am, you must know my reputation; but if you knew my reputation, how is it that you still dare trespass in my castle?"

"We're looking for Phytomon," Ken answered.

Gruesomon laughed. "You would take my favorite prisoner away from me? No, I don't think so." She reached toward them. Her fingers stretched, flew out and wrapped around the two digidestined before they had time to react. She pulled them to her and breathed a spell. "_Sleep._"

* * *

_This,_ Tora thought, was a dungeon. Dank, wet, dark. He couldn't imagine a better dungeon than this one. 

"Fire Opal." A ball of red light appeared in Opalmon's hands, revealing a network of stone and wood bridges over black water and islands of mud.

"Great," Tora groaned. "I'm beginning to wish we never set foot in the underworld."

Opalmon turned to him angrily. "I know you haven't seen much of the digital world, but it's a beautiful place, and it's my home. I'd hate to see what Daemon would do to it. I don't like these underworld demons much more than I like Ken, but I'm willing to put aside my personal feelings, trudge through the forest all day, and even deal with being thrown in a dungeon to find Phytomon and Xylomon if that's what I have to do to save my world from Daemon. It's my responsibility. And as a digidestined, it's your responsibility, too."

"Okay, I get it."

"Good." She led the way across the first rotting bridge toward the light of a distant window.

"By the way," Tora said carefully, hoping he wouldn't anger her again, "why do you hate Ken so much?"

"Has no one told you?" she asked.

"Told me what?"

"About Ken."

"No one ever says anything but good things about Ken."

"Let's just say," Opalmon grudgingly answered, "that Ken's done some things in his past that a lot of digimon have trouble forgiving, and none of us will soon forget."

"What kinds of things?"

Opalmon didn't get a chance to reply before the attack came.

The creature that dropped in front of them resembled a green dinosaur with two heads attached to two long necks. Opalmon scooped Tora out of the way as one head swooped at him, jaw gaping open to reveal rows of sharp teeth.

"Fire Opal!"

The attack knocked the creature off the bridge, but another one had snuck up behind them. Opalmon barely turned around in time. She whipped the closest head with the jeweled sleeve of her kimono. Then she pointed her fingers at the other. "Nacre Beam!"

The creature's other head thrashed as the beam burned across its snout.

Tora saw the first head go in for a second attack. "Look out!"

Opalmon spun around, but didn't have time to counter the blow. Tora grabbed her arm as she fell over the bridge's railing. She flipped back up without wasting a second. "Fire Opal!" The attack hit the bulk of the creature's body. It broke through the railing as it fell backward into the dark water.

"Are you hurt?" Tora asked breathlessly.

"No. Are you?"

He shook his head.

Opalmon smiled radiantly. "We do make a good team," she admitted. "Now let's get out of here before any more of those creatures find us."

* * *

Kari and Davis wandered through the empty rooms of the ground floor. Each room seemed dustier than the last. 

"Do you think anyone still lives here?" Davis wondered.

"I don't know. Didn't Ken say this is where we'd find Phytomon?"

"That's what the statue told us, but..."

They opened a door to a dining room. The cloth on the long table was yellow with age, and spider webs made canopies over the tarnished silver candlesticks. Ornately carved wooden panels covered the walls.

"It's sad; this place used to be so nice. What could have happened?"

They were about to turn away when Davis noticed something. "Hey, does that look like a path to you?"

Kari scanned the floor. It did look like someone had brushed away some of the dust to make a path. "I wonder where it goes."

They followed it to a panel in the far corner of the room. "Hmm..." Davis slid his fingers around the edges of the woodwork, then he pulled on the panel. It swung open on hidden hinges that, surprisingly, didn't squeak. They entered the dark passage, which contained a stairway.

A few minutes later, they reached the door at the top of the stairs. Candle light glowed through the keyhole. Davis knocked.

"Coming. Just a minute." The door handle jiggled, but didn't turn. "You didn't unlock the door, Mistress."

"Um, we're not your mistress," Davis said.

The keyhole dimmed as whoever was on the other side put her eye to it. "Gruesomon isn't with you? Did she send you?"

"No."

"Then she's going to be furious!" she said fearfully.

"You're a prisoner here? Who are you?" Kari asked.

"My name is Phytomon."

"Phytomon!" Davis declared. "You're the one we're looking for."

"Really?" she asked skeptically.

Kari explained. "Your sisters, Cryomon and Pyromon, sent us to find you."

Phytomon was quiet for a moment, then she whispered, "I haven't seen them in years. I miss them so much."

"Can't you break out?" Kari asked.

"If I tried to escape and Gruesomon found me, she'd kill me."

"We'll help you escape," Davis promised. "We haven't even seen Gruesomon. She must be away or something."

Phytomon considered the offer. "Okay," she said. "But only because if she finds you, you'll die if I'm not there to fight beside you. Besides, I've been here so long, it almost feels like death. Stand back."

Kari and Davis retreated down several steps. Thin green vines grew around the door and through the keyhole, then they heard something snap and the door opened. Phytomon was green-skinned, with a green dress, and leafy vines for hair. The only things about her that weren't green were her white eyes and the aquamarine gem she wore at her waste. "We'd better hope we can sneak out without Gruesomon finding us," she stated.


	12. Cast a Hundred Spells

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. The chapter titles come from "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by Po Chu-i.

Chapter 12: Cast a Hundred Spells

Ken awoke on a hard, flat platform in an empty chamber that reeked of rot and blood. It took only a second to realize he couldn't move his arms or legs. A dim light illuminated the room. It came, he determined, from a barred window on a door several meters away. His wrists and ankles were bound with ropes coming through holes at the table's corners. He saw Yolei tied to an identical table next to his. "Are you okay?" he asked her.

"I'm not hurt. What about you?"

"I don't think so."

Yolei tugged at the thick, tight rope. Then she sighed. "Captured twice in two days; this is a personal record."

Ken closed his eyes. "Do you hear that?"

She held her breath and listened. There was a slight whisper of air, a _swish._ She glanced around trying to determine the source of the sound.

"Oh no," Ken moaned.

She looked at him. "What?"

Ken was looking straight up. Yolei followed his eyes. A large ax-like blade swung from the ceiling.

"It's getting lower with each swing," Ken explained. "Gruesomon isn't a very creative torturer; she stole that from Poe."

"At least she's given us time to come up with an escape plan, or for someone to rescue us."

Ken wriggled his hands, trying to find a way to untie the knots in the ropes or slip out. After a few minutes, he sighed and gave up. "I'm not getting any brilliant ideas." He said sadly. "I'm sorry about this, Yolei."

"How is this your fault?" Yolei asked angrily. "Do you make it some kind of game to blame yourself for everything?" Before Ken could think of an answer, Yolei continued. "If anything, this is my fault. I shouldn't have followed Langmon into that room alone, and if I hadn't pretended to be hurt, Gruesomon might not have been able to sneak up on us."

He looked at her with curiosity, not the anger she would have expected had she thought before she blurted that out. "Why did you pretend to be hurt?"

"I wanted to see how you'd react," she admitted.

"Why?"

She looked away from him. How could she get out of telling him the truth? Well, they were tied up with a long wait before almost certain death, so this seemed as good a time as any to get it out in the open. "Kari told me...Kari said that she thinks you might have a crush on me, and I wanted to know if it was true."

"I see."

The complete lack of inflection in his voice led Yolei to risk a glance at him to see what his reaction was. He was looking toward the ceiling thoughtfully. "So is it true?" she asked.

After all this time, all the plans he'd made to tell here how he felt, could it really be as simple as answering a yes-or-no question? "It's true," he said quietly.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know. I wanted to, but I was afraid I would sound...ungrateful."

"'Ungrateful'?"

"Your friendship," he explained, "is a precious gift, which I've never deserved. How could I dare ask for anything more?"

"How can you believe that? Any girl would be lucky to have you."

"You know why that isn't true," he said quietly. "You know what I am."

"Yes, I do know what you are. You're beautiful. Outside and in. The most beautiful person I've ever met. And I know what you've been; I know what you went through to become who you are today. Ken, look at me." He did. "Have I ever lied to you? Successfully, I mean. You know I'm telling the truth."

His eyes began to glisten. "I wish I could have told you. I tried to, so many times. But I'm glad you know." He looked away. "But the timing could be better."

The blade swung only a meter above them now.

"Ken..." Yolei stretched her hand until her fingers brushed the tips of Ken's. He reached back until their fingertips could curl around each other, as close to holding hands as they could get at the moment. "It's going to be alright," Yolei assured him, but the tears brimming in her eyes betrayed her fear.

As Ken gazed at her, he realized the full extent of Gruesomon's torture: he would have to watch Yolei die, hear her die. He had to find a way out. "Yolei," he said, "when I count to three, I want you to rock as forcefully as you can away from me, and then back toward me, and keep holding my hand."

Under other conditions, Yolei might have asked why, but the pendulum was getting closer and closer, and she was willing to try anything. "Okay."

"One, two, three." They threw their weight away from each other, and then toward each other. The outside legs of the tables lifted into the air. Ken took a firmer hold on Yolei's hand. "Now, try to pull me toward you." As they did, the tables tilted inward. The legs began sliding along the stone floor. The tables tumbled together, squishing Ken and Yolei against each other, before smacking against the stone floor with a jarring force that knocked the tables apart.

Now hanging sideways, Ken and Yolei faced each other across a chasm of about a foot and a half. "Well," Yolei smiled grimly, "at least you managed to delay the inevitable."

"Maybe not: when the pendulum hits the wood, it will start to lose momentum. It will eventually lose too much kinetic energy to break through the tables."

They didn't have to wait long before the pendulum grazed the top of the table, cutting through the wood like warm butter. It swung back and cut a deeper wedge into the tables. The heavy blade pushed the tables a centimeter each time it struck them, even with the weight of the prisoners' tied to them.

"Are you sure this will work?" Yolei asked fearfully.

"To be sure I'd have to know the mass of the pendulum, the strength of the wood, and a few other variables."

"So no then." She looked at him sadly. "I don't want to die."

"I know," he said gently, "and we won't. We'll think of something." He looked at the ropes binding his wrists, trying to find some way out.

"It's no use." She winced as the swinging blade smashed into her table again. "Ken, this might be it."

He sighed. She was right. Everyone's time came eventually; his naïve ignorance of the precariousness of life had been shattered years ago, when Sam died. "If it is, I guess this is my last chance to say thank you."

Yolei looked at him curiously. "For what?"

"For saving me. When you and the others defeated me, you saved my soul. I would have been lost to the darkness, Yolei. I would have become an empty vessel, and it would have happened soon. I owe you everything. I can never express my gratitude for that."

Yolei blinked away tears. "It's alright," she said. She felt pathetic that she couldn't think of anything better to say, now, when she might never get another chance. The pendulum struck the table again. Since she was lighter than him, each pass of the blade pushed her further than him. She was now close enough...she leaned her head forward, and he, responding without thought, did the same. Their lips met in a hard, sorrowing kiss, as desperate and wonderful as a sip of water to someone lost in the desert. Too soon, the pendulum's returning swing tore Yolei away. Her eyes opened and her gaze latched on to Ken. "We'd better survive this," she said.

Ken's eyes caught shadowy movement under the crack of the cell's door. He thought Gruesomon had returned, but then seven mice scurried into the room. Yolei saw them too.

"You saved us," they said, "and now we're going to save you." They set to work gnawing through the ropes binding their hands and feet.

Ken dropped free first. He watched impatiently as the last cords of Yolei's bindings were chewed through as the pendulum swung closer. When she was free, the mice darted into cracks in the wall.

Ken pulled Yolei into his arms. She buried her head in his shoulder. He kissed her hair, then whispered "Come on. We're not free yet."

The door was, as they expected, locked.

"We'll have to wait for Gruesomon to come back," Yolei said with distaste.

"Something tells me we won't have long to wait; she'll want to make sure we're dead."

"What do we do?" Yolei whispered.

Ken looked at the door, then at the still-swinging deadly pendulum, and the toppled wooden tables. It was like a soccer game: the door was the goal, Gruesomon was the goalie, and Yolei was the ball. "You have to promise me you'll run when I tell you to run. Don't worry about me."

"I can't do that," she said.

"Try, please," he implored. "I'll be right behind you."

She nodded unconvincingly.

"Stay by the door." He walked to the fallen tables and rolled them upright, positioned them parallel to the door, fit the bottom edges in the cracks between the floor's stone tiles.

Without warning, the heavy door opened and Gruesomon stepped in, staring at Ken. "You're still alive." She _tsk_ed like a disappointed parent scolding a child. "Now I'm _really _angry." She reached her hand toward him, then whipped it to the side as her fingers turned into ropes and enveloped Yolei. "You have no idea what I'm going to do to you now."

"Please," Ken begged, "don't hurt her. Kill me if you want, but don't hurt her."

Yolei glanced at him. His mannerism was overdramatic, and she realized he had a plan. His eyes met hers briefly, silently encouraging her to play along. She only wished she knew how. "No, Ken," she said. Her voice was similarly histrionic, but it quaked with very real fear. "I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you."

A cruel smile twitched on Gruesomon's lips. "Really? That's too bad. You'll have the privilege of watching him die first." Her other hand stretched toward Ken. At the last possible second, he dodged behind one of the tables. Gruesomon's tentacles followed him and wrapped around his arm. He grabbed the table and tumbled it down on her grotesquely-elongated fingers, pinning them to the floor with his own weight. Gruesomon's eyes widened as the pendulum, momentarily forgotten, swung back and severed her fingers. Her unearthly screech split the air. She dropped Yolei as she brought her other hand to cradle the smoking stubs.

"Run!" Ken yelled.

Gruesomon's eyes blazed and red sparks jumped through her hair. "You will wish you let me kill you!"

Yolei and Ken dove out of the room. Yolei slammed the door closed and pulled the heavy latch into place. Then they sprinted as fast as their legs could carry them, ignoring the lingering soreness and fatigue from their ordeals the previous day. Red flashes lit the corridor behind them. They ran down the stairs and didn't stop running until they were outside the castle gate.


	13. Only Fog and Dust

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. The chapter titles come from "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by Po Chu-i.

Chapter 13: Only Fog and Dust

An hour or so before noon, Izzy and Tsukiyo reached the gates of Gruesomon's castle. The raven Ash gave a final caw and flew off over the forest.

They saw the message Yolei had written on the wall. "I guess we should wait here," Izzy said.

"They don't say anything about Tora or Opalmon," Tsukiyo said. Izzy thought there was a note of concern for her brother in her voice, but he might have imagined it.

"They must not be here yet," he suggested.

They heard an explosion near the castle, and a cloud of dust burst from the desiccated garden. Tsukiyo and Izzy watched curiously as Opalmon and Tora climbed from the tunnel Opalmon had cut to escape the dungeon. When Tora saw them, he ran to them.

"We have to leave, now," he said. "Opalmon and I were trapped by Gruesomon in the dungeon. She'll come looking for us."

"Where are the others?" Izzy asked.

Opalmon frowned. "We haven't seen them. Gruesomon might have..."

The castle door opened. Davis and Kari walked out, followed by a green-skinned female demon.

"Izzy, Tsukiyo, Tora, Opalmon!" Kari shouted in happy greeting. "We found Phytomon."

"And I suggest we not linger here," Phytomon said. "Gruesomon keeps herself informed of everything that goes on in her castle; she must know you're here by now."

"Since we have you, we can leave any time," Tsukiyo said. "We know Xylomon isn't here. We just need to find Ken and Yolei."

"They're not back yet?" Kari asked, suddenly worried. "They should have finished searching before we did. They could be in trouble."

Davis turned back toward the castle. "Well don't just stand there; let's go find them."

At that moment, Ken and Yolei raced out of the castle, panting and clearly scared. "Run!" Yolei shouted at them. "For goodness sake, _run!"_

Izzy turned to Phytomon. "Do you know where we can find the Linden Tree Path?"

"Of course. It's just on the other side of the castle from here. We can go around the castle wall." She was watching Ken and Yolei. "If that's the way we're going, I suggest we hurry. From the looks of those two, I'd say Gruesomon _definitely _knows you're here."

* * *

The group was deep in the forest again, miles down Linden Tree Path, before they finally started relaxing and stopped glancing over their shoulders to see if Gruesomon or her minions were following. Tora and Opalmon told about their capture, then Yolei talked about the ordeal she and Ken went through (leaving out some details). Later, when Phytomon told them they'd left the boundaries of Gruesomon's fiefdom and their fear faded, the digidestined took turns telling what happened to them on the way to the castle. 

"It seems that several myths from Earth have parallels here," Izzy said. "It could be that some Earth legends actually originate from ancient contact between humans and the demons of the Underworld."

"I've heard the Underworld dimension used to be closer to ours," Ken mentioned.

"I was thinking," Tsukiyo said, "Some ancient stories may hint that humans can form partnerships with underworld demons like we can with digimon."

"Preposterous," Opalmon scoffed. "For starters, what would be the point? These underworlders can't even digivolve. And they're generally evil by nature. No offense," she quickly added to Phytomon.

"None taken," Phytomon said. "We're not good, but I wouldn't say we're generally evil. Good and evil don't really matter to us. But there are exceptions: Gruesomon is definitely evil."

"What do you think, Phytomon?" Tsukiyo asked. "Do you think humans and underworlders can be partners?"

"I have no idea. I'm not sure if I would really like a partner."

Kari yawned heavily. She was used to going without sleep on her sojourns in the digiworld, but her lack of sleep did take a toll.

"We should stop for a rest," Davis said.

Phytomon turned toward him. "We might be out of Gruesomon's lands, but we're not out of danger yet. We should keep moving until nightfall."

"I agree with Phytomon," Opalmon said. "The more ground we cover, the better."

"I'm definitely getting my workout," Yolei joked.

"I think we all are," Kari said.

Ken remained mostly quiet as they journeyed down the shaded path. He could barely believe that Yolei finally knew how he felt about her, but the memory of the kiss was still vivid, seared into his mind by the fear of the moment. His lips still tingled. It hadn't been his first kiss, but it was _their _first kiss. Maybe it wouldn't work out. Maybe when they weren't in a life-or-death situation, Yolei would decide she wanted remain just friends. He would accept that, and still treasure the memory for the rest of his life.

Yolei, too, was thinking about the kiss. _I can't believe I'm so lucky...that Ken would actually choose _me!_ He's so amazing... wonderful... handsome... perfect... indescribable, and I'm just plain, old, ordinary Yolei. It doesn't make any sense. Not that I'm complaining_... She glanced surreptitiously at Ken and smiledShe recalled her siblings teasing her when Davis was trying to convince them to invite Ken to join them. _"You should give him a second chance. After all, he is your boyfriend." "Your horoscope says you'll be lucky in love this week." If they only knew!_

As the sun sank low in the sky, they approached a stark cliff face. Half way up the cliff was a large cave.

Phytomon looked at the cave longingly. "Xylomon's up there."

"You're sure?" Davis asked.

"She's my sister. I'm sure." She knelt and touched the ground. A moment later, a green leaf burst from the ground at the cliff base. It grew into a vine that wound its way up the rock. It reached the mouth of the cave. But instead of Xylomon, an enormous and terrifying creature emerged. It had leathery wings, large horns on its head, spikes along its spine, and smoke curling out of its nostrils.

"It looks like a dragon, except mean," Davis said.

"Everyone, stand back," Opalmon advised. She and Phytomon stood side by side, waiting to see what the beast would do.

It took one look at them—one long, chilling look—then blasted a plume of flame down the cliff.

The force of the blast knocked Opalmon and Phytomon back. Tora broke from where the humans watched from the tree line and ran to his digimon. "Opalmon," he said, "are you okay?"

She nodded. "Tora, I have to digivolve."

"Maybe we should retreat; that thing's too powerful."

She glared at him. "We have a mission to complete," she reminded him.

He sighed. "Okay."

"Opalmon digivolve to...Lazulimon!"

The dragon swooped toward Lazulimon and Tora.

"Lapidation!" Lazulimon sent a shower of stones against her foe. They bounced off its thick scales harmlessly.

The dragon landed in front of them, looking at Tora hungrily.

Phytomon put her hands to the ground again, and vines sprouted and wound themselves around the dragon's legs. Lazulimon took the opportunity to grab Tora and escape to the safety of the forest. Phytomon ran after them as the creature thrashed to escape its bindings.

"Okay, I think maybe we need a plan," Davis said once they were gathered together.

"We need to find a way to distract the dragon while someone climbs up the cliff," Yolei said.

"But the question is how." Izzy glanced at Tsukiyo, hoping she could come up with an idea. He was surprised to see that she had brought out her gift from Laetusmon, the jade carving. "Tsukiyo?"

"I have a feeling..." she said, confused, "that it's time to use this. But I have no idea how."

They caught glimpses of the dragon circling over head, trying to spot its prey through the trees.

"You'd better think of something fast," Yolei said. She added mentally, _If we die now...it would be really lousy timing._

Ken examined the sculpture's detail. "Some of the symbols on it are ancient Mayan."

"Can you read any of it?" Tsukiyo asked.

"A little," he admitted. "I took an interest in the Maya after my first visit to the Underworld. I believe this hieroglyph," he indicated one that looked like a hand grasping a rock, "means 'to touch the earth', which is a metaphor for birth."

Tsukiyo thoughtfully and carefully placed the jade object on the ground. Almost immediately, it began to glow. A bubble of iridescent light expanded from it. Tsukiyo stepped back. Everyone watched in amazement.

"It's a birthbloom," Phytomon whispered in amazement.

The energy bubble grew until it was over a meter across, then burst in a brilliant flash of white. Where it had been, a new demon now sat. It looked like a furry blue lizard the size of a large dog, and had long arms and legs connected with flaps of skin like a flying squirrel. It looked around at them with sparkling white eyes. It chirped.

"What is that thing?" Tora wondered.

"You got me," said Izzy.

"Oh, it's so cute!" Yolei gushed.

The demon looked around at the humans, then fixed its eyes on Tsukiyo. "Reimeimon," it said matter-of-factly.

"Reimeimon?" Tsukiyo repeated, confused by the creature's sudden appearance.

Reimeimon nuzzled her hand.

"It looks like you have a partner, Tsukiyo," Ken said.

The dragon, which had been nearly forgotten during Reimeimon's birth, crashed through the trees nearby and spat fire in their direction. The newborn Reimeimon nimbly scampered up the closest tree and shrieked at it.

The dragon snapped at Reimeimon. It jumped off its branch and spread the flaps between its arms and legs, gliding swiftly past the dragon's head, then grabbed its horns. It started trilling annoyingly. The dragon thrashed its head, trying to dislodge the baby demon.

As the humans and Lazulimon watched Reimeimon, Phytomon slipped away to rescue her sister while the dragon was distracted.

"Reimeimon!" Tsukiyo shouted with deep concern she didn't understand as the dragon began hitting the underworlder with its wings.

Lazulimon bounded toward the dragon. "Lapis claw!"

The dragon's tail whipped her. She smacked into a tree trunk and dedigivolved.

Vines began growing up the dragon's legs and tail. The surrounding trees bent out of shape to trap it. With a frightened squeak, Reimeimon jumped off and ran behind Tsukiyo.

As the dragon tried to find a way out of its woody prison, the digidestined turned around to see Phytomon and a tall humanoid demon with dark brown skin, long grey hair, and the turquoise gem that characterized the sisters. "Humans, Opalmon, this is Xylomon," Phytomon introduced.

"Great to meet you. Let's get out of here."

* * *

A safe distance from both the dragon's mountain and Gruesomon's castle, the group stopped to rest for the night. Kari, Tora, and Opalmon went straight to sleep. Phytomon and Xylomon, who obviously had a lot of catching up to do, offered to stand watch for the first part of the night. Reimeimon had learned the word "why" and was testing the depths of Tsukiyo and Izzy's considerable wells of knowledge. 

Davis yawned as he rolled out his sleeping bag. He was very tired, but he still noticed Yolei and Ken exchange secretive glances and then slip off into the woods together.

Ken and Yolei found a place out of earshot of the camp where a fallen tree provided a place to sit and a gap that allowed in moonlight.

Ken looked at her for a moment, admiring the tint of her strawberry blond hair in the moonlight. Then he spoke. "I've been trying not to think about how much I don't deserve you, but it's true. It's always been true, but you insisted on being my friend anyway. I'm not exactly sure what I'm trying to say, but I'm...I don't want you to feel like you're obligated to return my feelings because of our friendship or anything. I'll understand if you don't; I won't hold it against you, and it won't hurt our friendship."

Yolei looked at Ken, then quickly down to where her hand rested on the whiteness of the log. He was so beautiful in the moonlight. He gave her flutters in her stomach...and certain other organs. "Ken," she said quietly, "I used to...when I didn't know you, except from television, I had a crush on you..."

"I know. Davis told me."

"What!" she fumed angrily. "I made everyone promise never to tell you! Errg! Davis is going to get it!" Ken's smile made her anger evaporate, and she continued in a normal tone. "If you know I had a crush on you, why do you think I wouldn't want to be your girlfriend?" He gave her one of his looks—one of those expressions of deep and silent emotion that only he could pull off—and she realized she shouldn't even have asked. Once again, it was the Emperor, and the guilt that would not die. "I've told you..." she sighed. "It's true that I felt that way when you first turned good, but I changed my mind when I got to know you better. The truth is...I thought you liked Kari. And..." She hadn't wanted to tell him about her crush on the Emperor, because she didn't want to do anything to hurt her chances with him, but she knew if they were going to take their friendship to another level, she had to be up-front, otherwise they would both suffer for her secrecy later. "...when you were the digimon emperor, I dreamed about kissing you, and I felt like that made me a horrible person who doesn't deserve you." She was afraid of offending him, or that he would think less of her, so she panicked and started rambling. "You're wonderful, Ken, and the Emperor was terrible, and I'm sorry I can be so stupid, and then I hated you because of those stupid dreams, and then you turned out to be so great. I'm so sorry..."

Ken put his fingertips to her lips, instantly silencing her. "You never have to apologize to me. Not for anything. Understand?"

Yolei's eyes fluttered closed as she luxuriated in the feeling of Ken touching her lips. She slid her hand over his and kissed his palm. Then she held his hand against her cheek and gazed at him. She could see the moon reflected in his eyes, his black hair stood out sharply against his pale cheeks. "I can't believe there was a time when I hoped I'd never see you again. Now I can't imagine life without you."

Ken wondered if this was a dream. It seemed too good to be true. He wanted it to be real; he wanted to be Yolei's boyfriend, instead of just wishing he were. He wanted this to be perfect. He had to be careful, to take it slow. "Are you...um...do you have plans for next Friday...night...or..."

"No, I don't have any plans. What would you like to do?"

"Maybe we could...maybe we could have...dinner?"

Yolei smiled softly. He was so shy. He'd never had a serious relationship before, or even been out on a date with the same girl twice. She was willing to go at his pace. "Okay. What time should we meet?"

"I'll have to check my schedule. But whenever's convenient for you."

"When we get home, check your schedule and call me." She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "Goodnight Ken," she said and she stood up and began making her way back to the camp through the trees. It was hard for her to leave when all she wanted to do was kiss him more, but they both had a lot to think about. And, anyway, waiting was part of the fun.

"Goodnight Yolei," Ken called after her. He didn't move yet. His hand lifted to the spot on his cheek where her lips had been.


	14. Epilogue

Author's note: Thank you, everyone who read this fic. I hope you liked it. If you didn't, I'm sorry.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. The chapter titles come from "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by Po Chu-i.

Epilogue: The Ever True

The digidestined made it to the part of the Underworld ruled by Balaammon safely. Phytomon and Xylomon reunited joyfully with Cryomon and Pyromon. The sisters knew they would no longer be safe in the Underworld—not only had the violated the wishes of some powerful Underworld overlords, but Daemon's followers might try to stop them if they guessed their plans. Opalmon made arrangements with some of her contacts in the digiworld for the four sisters to go into hiding until Daemon was found.

The digidestined decided to check on their digimon before returning to Earth. They didn't get to see much of them these days, since the digimon were busy searching for Daemon.

"Hawkmon!" Yolei shouted happily when she found her digimon.

"Yolei! It's so good to see you," Hawkmon said as he threw his wings around his human partner. "Is it just me, or is your smile somehow brighter than usual?"

Her smile grew even brighter. "Oh, Hawkmon, you'll never guess what happened!"

"Then why don't you save me the trouble and just tell me?"

"You won't believe who has a crush on me."

"Ken?"

She frowned. "How did you know?"

"Well...uh..." He rubbed the back of his head with his wing. "Gatomon told me that Ken told her he has feelings for you."

"Why didn't you tell me!"

"Ken made Gatomon promise not to tell anyone, so Gatomon only told me on condition that I promise not to tell you."

"That's so unfair! You're my digimon; you should have told me."

"I'm sorry, Yolei, but at least you know now, right?"

"I guess so. I just wish I knew sooner." She smiled again. "I can't believe he likes me. Ken Ichijouji has a crush on _me. _Can you believe it?"

"Yes, indeed I can." Yolei looked at him curiously, so he added, "You're outgoing, you're assertive, you're confident, and you have many other fine qualities he lacks and admires. If I do say so myself, I think he has good taste."

* * *

Ken had a harder time finding his digimon. He heard Wormmon was somewhere near Mount Zmeya, in a swampy region of the digital world. As Ken looked at the dark forest, he recalled that this was where Talya and Hebimon were rumored to be hiding. The search for Talya had come to an abrupt halt when they learned of Daemon's return. The human thief who claimed to want nothing but to live quietly in the digiworld was low-priority now that Daemon was a threat again, but perhaps it was a mistake to stop looking for her. Ken didn't think she was really evil, but if he was wrong—if Talya decided to use her power to take over the digital world—she could prove to be a dangerous enemy. 

Wormmon emerged from the shadows of the swamp. "Ken, what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you about something."

Wormmon looked at Ken, who looked more distant than usual. He was concerned. "What?"

A smile appeared on Ken's face. "She kissed me."

"Yolei kissed you? Really?"

"Yes. And we have a date on Friday."

"Ken, that's wonderful!" There was a time when Wormmon would have been jealous, but recently that had changed. "I'm proud of you," he said sincerely.

* * *

Weeks passed with no sign of Daemon. Izzy was frustrated that he couldn't locate the evil digimon with his computer, but he had other things to worry about. 

He'd invited Tsukiyo to dinner at his parents' house. Tentomon had left the digiworld for the occasion.

"This soup is delicious, Mrs. Izumi," Tsukiyo complimented.

"Thank you." She smiled brightly. "I hope you eat at our home more often."

Izzy smiled uncomfortably. That was his mother's less-than-subtle encouragement. Both of his parents knew his plan. He'd discussed it with them. They both loved Tsukiyo, especially the effect she had on their son. They didn't mind that she was older than him, or that she was a burakumin.

Reimeimon, lapping at her soup too eagerly, spilled some on the tablecloth.

"I'm so sorry," Tsukiyo said. She used her napkin to sop up some of the mess.

"Don't worry about it," Izzy told her as he stood to grab some paper towels from the kitchen.

Tentomon followed him. "So," he whispered, "when are you going to ask her?"

"After dinner," Izzy replied.

"I thought you said you would ask her before dinner."

"I did, but..." He sighed. "It's not that easy."

"What's not easy about it? Just ask her."

Izzy returned to the dining room and cleaned up the spill.

A few minutes later, Mrs. Izumi brought in dessert: banana cream pie, a dish which Tsukiyo had once mentioned she was fond of.

"Izzy," Mr. Izumi said politely, "didn't you have something you wanted to ask Tsukiyo?"

Izzy stuffed a large spoonful of pie into his mouth. "Hm?"

Tsukiyo looked at him. He chewed for several seconds after the bite was gone. As he reached for another, Tsukiyo asked, "What did you want to ask me?" Her tone seemed to suggest that she expected an academic question, but with her it was hard to tell, since she incorporated science into every aspect of her daily life.

Izzy glanced at his palm, where he had a short list of prompts written in now-blurry letters. "I never did tell you what the gift Laetusmon gave me was, did I?"

"No. And I've asked four times so far."

Izzy nervously slipped off his chair to one knee. He took out the box Laetusmon had given him and opened it, revealing a platinum ring set with a blue-sheen moonstone circled with alternating moissanite and black opal accents. "I hope it's your hand," he said shakily. He'd come up with that line before, but now it sounded overdramatic. He wished he could think of something better. But thinking was frustratingly difficult at the moment.

Tsukiyo stared at the ring for a moment. "You're asking to marry me?" she finally realized.

"Yes."

She slipped her finger into the ring. It fit perfectly. "Yes," she said quietly. She tore her eyes from the ring to look at Izzy. The look on her face wasn't one of excitement. In fact, there wasn't much in her expression that could be called happiness. There was something unexpected in her face, something like gratitude or relief, something that told of this woman's long years of loneliness that were now at an end. "Yes, Izzy, I very much want to marry you."

Izzy smiled—nearly laughed with delight—and took Tsukiyo's hands in his. She smiled back.

Reimeimon poked Tentomon. "What they say?"

"Izzy just proposed marriage," Tentomon explained.

"What thing 'marraige'?"

He pondered how to explain it. "It means that, out of everyone in the world, Izzy chooses Tsukiyo."

"For why?"

"Izzy and Tsukiyo want to be together forever," he said.

"Ever thing mean all the time?"

"Um, not really all the time. They just love each other, and want everyone to know that they love each other so much that they want to live together for the rest of their lives."

Reimeimon looked profoundly confused, but she decided it must be a good thing, and smiled excitedly.

* * *

Will the digidestined and their allies be able to defeat Daemon? Will Izzy and Tsukiyo go through with the wedding? Find out on the next episode of Frost Deejn's Digimon fanfiction! 


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